Understanding
by prouvaires
Summary: -she's going to have to act like she's never acted before- For Kimani, aka VintageConspiracy


**For Kimani, a.k.a VintageConspiracy. **

**We got your back, girl.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, and I stole a small part of the plot from Kim's hectic holiday.**

~x~

Sonny still isn't _exactly _sure how it happened.

She's pulling an all-nighter to try to puzzle it out, sitting on the empty So Random set, sipping absently at a mocha.

So, he was her _best best _friend in the _whole wide world_. And so was she. They were an inseparable trio. Everyone thought of them almost as one, three separate beings melded into one complex whole.

Sonny, Lucy, Nico.

Lucy had moved up to L.A. with her mother, father and three siblings, and when she started to hang out at the studios, she and Nico hit it off, and the three of them started getting closer, melting into one.

Then Sonny started to realise that maybe the strange thing she felt was in fact a little bit more than just plain old friendship towards Nico. She didn't know how to react to her realisation, so she backed away, cooled their friendship down a little. She told Lucy how she felt, of course – she would have trusted Lucy with anything.

It was fine for three, maybe four weeks. Then everything suddenly changed. One day Lucy and Nico came into the studios and something indefinable had shifted between the three of them. Sonny started picking up strange looks between the other two, and the way they moved, acted, talked around each other was just _different._

She had discovered it today, the thing which had changed everything.

Lucy and Nico are an _item_. Sonny almost chokes as she thinks the word. That night, the one before everything went wrong, the two had been out at a movie (without Sonny) and, as Lucy had told Sonny with wide-eyed, fake-as-you-please innocence, they had _connected _and the next morning, with terrible hangovers, had woken up next to each other naked.

Sonny takes another long pull at her mocha as her brow creases, her dark eyes staring off into nothingness.

She doesn't really understand, to be honest. She just knows that tomorrow she's going to have to walk into the studio with her head held high, the in comprehensible pain in her eyes masked.

She's going to have to act like she's never acted before.

She's going to have to pretend that it hasn't affected her, this world-changing news. Like she doesn't care that her best friend is screwing the guy she's in love with, that their betrayal doesn't break her inside.

She leans back against the corner of the set and sighs, gulping at the mocha again. She refuses to let even a single tear escape, because she's promised herself she would never cry for them, and she knows that as soon as one tear comes the rest will follow in an unstoppable flood.

The sky outside the window is ebony-black, and Sonny searches futilely for the stars the light pollution from the City of Angels hides. She turns her mind to that, to distract from the confusing pain.

The City of Angels. This place of deception, betrayal and plastic. The angels walking here are the _angeli casi_, the fallen angels, the ones cast from Heaven at the beginning of time.

Sonny sighs and lets her head fall back against the cold metal, the warmth of the cup in her hand clutched to her chest, and her mind returns unbidden to the reason she's alone in a dark, empty studio at two in the morning. Her phone is switched off, discarded next to her carelessly, and with a final slurp she finishes the mocha and sets the cup down next to her. The sound echoes through the deserted room.

"Who's there?" a voice suddenly asks quietly, causing Sonny to jump right out of her skin. Her heart beating wildly, rapidly, she leaps to her feet and twists to the corner the voice came from.

"Who are you?" she asks firmly, her hands clenching into fists at her side, her feet in their old trainers shifting minutely as her adrenaline kicks in. There's the soft sound of footsteps, and then a blond head comes into the light.

"Chad?" she says in disbelief, her hands falling open and the trembling in her limbs giving way to relief.

"I thought you were – "

"A crazy rapist?" he suggests with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. She pushes her hair out of her face with a soft sigh, and bends to pick up the cup and her phone. He's already beside her, having moved fast across the room, and he picks up her phone for her.

They both straighten up, Sonny watching him with wary, suspicious eyes. He presses the phone into her palm, and her fingers clutch it reflexively.

"What are you doing here?" she asks with a slight frown, and he moves back out of her personal space.

"What are _you _doing here?" he counters, and she scowls, her defence engine instantly kicking in.

"I asked you first, remember?"

"Fine," he says with a slight laugh, and slides down the side of the set to sit down. "I like the quiet and the emptiness. It lets me … think."

"_You_ think?" Sonny asks in disbelief, and, after a brief internal battle, sits down next to him. He turns to her and smiles, the light from the streetlights outside casting a soft golden glow over his features.

"As unlikely as it sounds, I do like to _think _from time to time."

She's intrigued, despite herself, and cuts back all the sarcastic retorts she could make. "What are you thinking about tonight?"

His gaze slides to meet hers. "I'm thinking about a girl. She's hung up on some other guy, so I'm trying to decide the best strategy before I make a move."

Sonny laughs. "Have you considered that maybe you _shouldn't _make a move? If she likes some other guy?"

"But the other guy's a douche," he points out, as though this is the most obvious thing in the world. "She'd be much better off with me."

Sonny chuckles. "I pity her."

Chad also laughs, and flicks his hair. "So, what are you doing here?"

She looks at her feet in their grubby old trainers. "I guess I'm doing some thinking, too."

"What are you thinking about?" he asks, his expression ingenuous and innocent, which sets alarm bells ringing in Sonny's mind.

"Oh, nothing much," she deflects the question, and tries to rise, to leave, but his hand covers hers for a brief second, holding her down, then removes itself quickly.

"You're thinking about Freako and Pink-Dress Girl, aren't you?"

"Who's …"

Chad flicks his fingers impatiently. "You know, the tall one on your show and the crazy girl you brought to my birthday party who wore a pink dress and told everyone the story of her grandfather and the gas company."

"You mean Nico and Lucy?" Sonny tries to hide the little stab of pain that runs through her as she says their names, but Chad must see it because he shifts minutely closer. Sonny automatically moves away.

"Why do you even care?" she says quietly, self-pityingly, and Chad sizes her up briefly.

"I don't know," he says genuinely. "I guess I heard about what went down between you three – "

"How did you know about that?" Sonny interrupts suspiciously, and he grins.

"I pay your security guy to tell me all the gossip from Chuckle City," he says, sounding proud of himself.

"Chad, you can't do that! It's our _private _business."

"Whatever," he replies, the tone of his voice implying that he's not going to do anything about it. "So … what actually happened? All Tony heard was shouting and screaming and something smashing and then you stormed out."

She stays silent, and he sighs. "C'mon, Sonny, tell me."

"Why should I?" he flinches from the sudden venom in her voice. "What have you _ever _done for me?"

He grins broadly. "Number one, Weird Beard. Number two, the fake date. Number three, breaking up Marshmallow and …"

"Okay, I give," Sonny surrenders with a slight frown. "But who's Marshmallow?"

"Your director person. You know, the one who likes pie?"

Sonny tries to stifle a smile. His way of remembering people just makes her laugh.

"Okay, you've helped me in the past. You've even been _nice _sometimes. But this is my private business, and you should just keep your nose out of it."

"But I don't want to," he states, as though speaking to an imbecile, and Sonny groans.

"Why, of all people, did t have to be _you _that picked tonight to stay late?" she asks, but she's not really talking to him. He answers anyway.

"Karma," he says with a smile, and then his expression turns serious. "But, Sonny, you can tell me. Don't you trust me?"

She sizes him up. On the one hand, he's Chad Dylan Cooper, the stuck-up TV star, and she doesn't trust him for an instant. But on the other hand he's just Chad, the guy, the one who helps her when she gets herself into difficult situations and knows when to be just be nice.

"I guess I do trust you," she replies quietly, somewhat astonished by the fact.

"That's good. So, tell me."

She sighs and once again lets her head fall back. "Lucy and Nico are sleeping with each other," she tells him, and she's relieved to hear no snort of laughter. Instead, when she sneaks a glance at him, he's frowning.

"What?" she asks, and he turns back to her.

"That's not nice of them. They're your friends."

Sonny blinks in surprise. Chad Dylan Cooper is being … _understanding_? But, as their gazes meet for a second, and his honest, steady stare fixes on her face, Sonny realises that tonight he's being Chad the guy, not Chad the TV star. And she has no idea when she started making a distinction between the two.

"I'm … surprised you understand," she says, looking down at her shoes and fiddling with the frayed edges of her tracksuit bottoms.

"I have my moments," he says, and she can hear the smile in his voice. And suddenly she knows, beyond a doubt, that even though she's lost her two best friends, Chad will always be there for her. Whether he does it with a smile or a sarcastic remark, he'll still be there. He won't admit it, but he will.

Armed with this unexpected knowledge, Sonny gets to her feet.

"Thank you, Chad," she says, toying with the empty mocha cup. "I'm … glad you were here."

She crosses the room on silent feet and slides through the gap in the door. Chad's head falls back and he stares unseeingly out of the window.

"So am I," he whispers into the empty air. "So am I."

~x~

**Kim, I hope you liked it.**

**Everyone else, please leave a review! And please, for the love of patooga, don't favourite without reviewing.**


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